Punishment
by Pink Mouse
Summary: Where'd Setsuna go during the SuperS season? Here's MY explanation--more to come. Please review!!
1. Being Rent

Punishment  
First Torture: Being Rent  
authored 5-23-01  
modified 4-9-02  
  
1st AN: I've taken the explanation of Pluto's disappearance during the SuperS season in my own hands...let's see what happens!  
2nd AN: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! If you don't know what happens at the end of the SMS and Stars seasons, _do_not_ read this if you don't want it spoiled. You've been warned. ~.^  
3rd AN: I have neglected the fact that in the manga Setsuna stopped time to stop Diamond from joining the two Imperium Crystals. That bit just wouldn't fit in. So as background, include everything EXCEPT that episode. (I know, stupid author, but work with me.)  
***  
  
"We're going to crash!"  
"No!" Haruka grappled with the throttle to pull the helicopter out of its tailspin.  
"Haruka!" Michiru braced herself for the explosion as Daihmon coated the windshield.  
Suddenly, silence blanketed them, and with their eyes squeezed shut, the Senshi couldn't tell whether they were dead or deaf. Tentatively, Haruka opened one feral eye. IN front of her, shards of glass, tongues of flame, and bits of Daihmon-coated helicopter hung suspended in midair.  
"Haruka?" Michiru's voice was barely audible.  
"We're alive?" Haruka was incredulous, half-expecting to wake from this dream to find her life extinguished.  
"Uranus. Neptune." A musical, husky voice caught the senshi's attention. Behind them, Sailor Pluto stood, holding her Garnet Staff aloft, her form surrounded by filamentuous time-space strings.  
"Pluto! How--" Michiru gasped.  
"Time will not stay stopped for long. I have broken the biggest of the Three Taboos by halting its flow." Her rod glowed a blood-red, a color deeper, more foreboding than the Orb's normally crystalline hue.  
"What will happen to you?"  
"I must be punished. Go. And if you find the real sovereign--" The red light flickered, and so did the form of Hades' Senshi.  
"Yes, Pluto? If we find the real sovereign?" Haruka was eager. But before Pluto could respond, a flash of light dissolved Uranus and Neptune into gilded beams of light which slipped their way quickly to the roof of Mugen Gakuken. The Senshi stumbled but kept to their feet when they landed. Above them, the helicopter exploded in a flash of Death and a roar of fire.  
"PLUTO!"  
"PLUTO!"  
But they knew a human being could not have survived the blast. 


	2. Decortication

Punishment  
Second Torture: Decortication  
authored 5-23-01  
modified 4-9-02  
  
1st AN: In case you ignored the summary, or the warning in part one, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! If you don't know what happens at the end of the SMS and Stars seasons, _do_not_ read this if you don't want it spoiled. You've been warned. ~.^  
2nd AN: I have neglected the fact that in the manga Setsuna stopped time to stop Diamond from joining the two Imperium Crystals. That bit just wouldn't fit in. So as background, include everything EXCEPT that episode. (I know, stupid author, but work with me.)  
***  
  
"PLUTO!"  
  
Setsuna let a few tears drop from her eyes as she observed her partners' distress.  
"I wish I could tell them..." she murmured.  
The glow from her Garnet Rod suddenly dies and a blue wash of light illuminated her surroundings.  
"Sailor Senshi guarded by Pluto, keeper of the Gate of Time, Guide to the Cherry Way, Servant of Hades: also known as Meioh Setsuna!" The sonorous voice rang from a podium in front of Setsuna. It continued as ranks of hooded figures appeared and formed lines on both sides of Setsuna, creating a corridor with the speaker at its head. "You are charged with violation of the Third Taboo! Step forward and explain yourself."  
Setsuna took one tiny step forward. The space was so quiet that she could hear the back bow of her skirt swish and hush.  
"Your excellence...I only wished to help save those who will attempt to save the world."  
"Though your action will ultimately prove key in the redemption of Sailor Saturn and the destruction of Pharaoh 90, it will have far-reaching consequences when those you saved turn against their kin in the final battle against Galaxia."  
{'Galaxia'? Turn _against?_ Uranus? Neptune? You would betray us? No! But Excellency DID say that Pharaoh 90 will be defeated...but if Sailor Saturn is resurrected, what difference will it make?} Pluto was confused, terrified, and ashamed. Why had she thought that she would know what was best? Why, why, why had she broken the rules?  
Excellency continued. "Despite these mixed consequences, the fact remains that you have broken the Third Taboo. Normally the repercussion of this act is immediate death. But you are still needed in this lifetime, thus, you will merely be -punished-."  
As Excellency finished speaking, Pluto felt her Senshi Crystal crack. With a great it shattered. But instead of falling from her breast, it floated in shards before her. Dark purple ribbons wrapped Setsuna, dissolved her Senshi outfit, and tightly wrapped her brooch. Then they too dissolved, leaving the shattered gem hovering near Setsuna's chest. Slowly, it moved closer. Standing before the council, unclad, ashamed of her rash actions, Setsuna watched as the shattered crystal of her guardian planet, the abiding place of her soul, turned its sharp ends toward her. In disbelief of the fact she was still alive, Setsuna barely had wit to react as the fragments darted forward, burying their needle noses between her breasts. They shot into her chest like knives, digging deeply 'till they reached her heart.  
Setsuna cried out as blood poured from the wounds. But normal this blood was not. Black as night, it made her ebony skin pale by comparison. Setsuna ceased her screaming and began weeping as the blood poured down her chest. Strangely, its loss did not weaken her. The only sensation she felt was one of alertness and focus on extreme needle-like pain.  
"Because of your disobedience, you are unclean and not worthy of being a Senshi. Therefore, you are being purged. In a few days the blood will stop flowing. But before you can transform again, you must prove yourself worthy of the honor. Until then, your crystal will stay embedded in your body. There is no guarantee how long this will take...your Garnet Rod and Orb will be kept in secret against the time you come to claim them. If ever again you feel yourself wrapped by the Senshi ribbons, you will know at that moment you proved yourself to the Council.  
You will resume life on earth after the battle with Pharaoh 90 is over. You will not be able to contact the other Senshi at all. The Council will send one projection of Sailor Pluto to a Senshi of your choice to assure her of your well-being. Direct contact is prohibited to keep you from revealing more than you already have." The voice frowned deeply on Setsuna.  
"Thank you, Excellency. Please inform Chibiusa I am well." She bowed deeply, and the stream of blood from her chest flowed straight to the ground like a waterfall.  
"Are you sure you want to entrust the information to Small Lady?"  
"She is my greatest friend. Tell her."  
"As you wish. You will now be sent to your cell to wait until you stop bleeding. Then we will give you the means to survive and put you back into the world. None of the Senshi will be able to see or hear you, but they'll still be able to feel you. and normal citizens will be able to interact with you normally, so be careful. Despite the facts against you, the Council has not at all forgotten what you have sacrificed to protect this Solar System. This time, however, you went too far. Learn your lesson well."  
As Excellency stopped talking, the council room ranks of cloaked figures, and blue light vanished. Setsuna was left in a black void, in pain emotionally and physically. It was hard for her to tell which was the greater hurt. 


	3. Meditation

Punishment  
Third Torture: Meditation  
authored 5-23-01  
modified 4-9-02  
  
1st AN: In case you ignored the summary, or the warning in part one, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! If you don't know what happens at the end of the SMS and Stars seasons, _do_not_ read this if you don't want it spoiled. You've been warned. ~.^  
2nd AN: I have neglected the fact that in the manga Setsuna stopped time to stop Diamond from joining the two Imperium Crystals. That bit just wouldn't fit in. So as background, include everything EXCEPT that episode. (I know, stupid author, but work with me.)  
***  
  
Setsuna curled up in the black space allotted her and soon noticed the air was thickening as thin wisps of palpable vapor found each other and joined, creating cloud-like cushions. She pulled her knees up to her chin and rolled onto the vapor cushions which responded by wrapping her in their embrace. They untied her bun and gently laid her long, tangled hair across her shoulders, lending a bit of familiar warmth to Setsuna and the cold energy of the void. In this fetal position, Setsuna looked like a child in the womb. Her chest was still bleeding profusely, and the black blood flowed in ribbons over her arms and legs.  
She couldn't sleep because of the omnipresent pain. In waking dreams she envisioned the purple-black ribbons of the Senshi Pluto wrapping her, their edges sliding on her skin, then releasing as her fuku materialized around her. Several times she began to stretch out and up, raising her arms in henshin ritual, and would've sworn she was actually transforming. But it was only a dream. Once, she felt the lifeforces of Haruka and Michiru flare up, then be nearly extinguished, and screamed inside her head for their safety. In a minute, she sensed the glow of their souls brighten, and thanked whatever deity was listening to her pleas for keeping alive those that she was suffering for.  
Aside from these visions, Setsuna was alone for time which seemed to lest forever, even to her. She tried counting the beats of her heart to distract herself from the emptiness and silence, but only found herself using the rhythm as a stopwatch to accurately mark the time, and so ceased.  
Finally, Setsuna closed her eyes and curled herself tighter inside her vaporous bed. She tried to relax her body to at least give it semblance of sleep as her mind drifted. Semblance of slumber might help heal her body, she reasoned, which just -might- in turn begin to heal her weary soul.  
The vapors surrounding Setsuna wrapped her tighter.  
Setsuna's mind was pondering the resemblance of pansy blossoms to human faces when her chest exploded. Light poured forth in liquid form like glowing gilded water. The flow of black blood was enveloped and closed off by the mercurial light which heated her chest to burning. Setsuna watched, disbelieving, as her wounds cauterized and closed so fast she thought she was watching a time-lapse film. To her distress, the heat remained in her breast as the healing wounds sealed it in. Tentatively, she touched the area where the wounds had been. No tenderness, no scars, nothing! And the pain had left her, as well...  
While she was thus absorbed, the blue light and council appeared around her.  
"There will be no marks. All that will remain--and this only until you prove yourself--is the heat in your chest."  
Setsuna quickly looked up, startled by his presence. "Excellency!"  
"Go now, the sooner to return to the ranks of the Senshi," boomed Excellency's sonorous voice.  
Setsuna's eyes widened as she felt ribbons wrapping around her. For a second, she had believed them to be those of the Senshi. But they were colder, stiffer than her beloved henshin transformation. As they pulled from her body, they revealed her lavender skirt suit. A rush of the cloud-vapors clamored around her, and shoved her bodily toward a portal just visible at et 'edge' of the void.  
"Go," they whispered.  
Hesitantly, Setsuna stepped through the portal. 


End file.
